Happy Birthday! The Waitangi Tribunal turns, 50 but there’s no cause to celebrate – John Tamihere

This year the Waitangi Tribunal turns 50 – that’s pretty young considering the multitude of discrepancies between Māori and the Crown since the Treaty was signed in 1840.

The Waitangi Tribunal is a commission of inquiry appointed to make recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to legislation, policies, actions or omissions of the Crown that are alleged to breach promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi. Fact is, this Tribunal wouldn’t exist if the Crown simply treated Māori as equals and stood by their word.

Currently the Waitangi Tribunal is assessing the National-Act coalition agreement to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act that stipulates Māori rights to raise displaced children in a culturally sensitive environment that can educate, protect and connect them to their whakapapa. To do away with that clearly shows you another insight into the mentality of this Coalition Government.

This is a dictatorship Government. When they don’t like anything they stand over you and say you have no right to bring me before the law because I am above the law.

Governments are not above the law. Ministers are not above the law. If a Minister wants to take away a significant statutory licence that is actually showing noteworthy opportunities working for Māori children, he or she is being oppressive. Push Māori back where they belong, out of the way and controlled.

Acr Leader David Seymour thinks that they’re above the law. Generally they can pay for the very best lawyers because there is not one law for all as they argue.

There is one law for very wealthy people who can fund some remarkable legal representation to play the game out, grind others down, exhaust them and win. These people are used to having their way, they are not used to being summoned before a tribunal or court to justify what they are doing.

We need to follow the path of our Australian cousins who have the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to monitor political grafting, something that is a regular occurrence here. Graft is overt coercion through donations or alternative promises that positively affect someone’s business.

Back in the day, it used to be as small as shouting someone to the All Blacks and perhaps that someone was one of the tender-purchasing staff at the local authority or in Government. Their host asks them to let a tender slip the other way or discreetly hint at the right number in which to bid at. That’s a graft which some people simply brush off as a normal way of doing business. It is not. Grafting is corruption.

A quick Google search shows you Graeme Hart made momentous donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars to National and Act last year; and as our Smokefree generation law dissolves it’s worth mentioning that two former NZ First senior officials are now top executives at tobacco company Phillip Morris NZ.

This Government ignored solid evidence to create a Smokefree Generation. They are now one of the most overt Governments that is in the hands of lobbyists and large-scale donators.

In any other country a numbers would be before the courts, particularly in the United States, for graft.

The Waitangi Tribunal want Minister Karen Chhour to appear as she is the primary mind behind the policy and therefore can explain her reasons to remove 7AA that has been there since 2019. That is a fair request.

It took almost 50 years to ensure Māori finally had a right to build a system where they could engage with whakapapa and could engage with family members who had the ability and capacity to love and care for their nieces, nephews, grandchildren and their own children.

This is significant for Māori and yet it is a position that middle-class non-Māori take for granted. It is not a big ask and it is not rocket science.

To undo Section 7AA is removing a child’s right to be connected to their roots, their family and their culture. No one has the mana to make that decision for them.

John Tamihere, Te Pāti Māori President

John Tamihere is a former Labour Cabinet Minister and Chief Executive of Whānau Ora and West Auckland Urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.